Russia, Libya announce $1.8 billion arms deal

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin announced on Saturday that his government and Libya have agreed to an arms deal worth $1.8 billion. Putin also said that the agreement is not just for small arms.

On Saturday, former Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that they have come to an arms deal with the Libyan government worth $1.8 billion, according to Reuters. The contract, which is worth nearly a quarter of Russian state arms exporter’s entire sales in 2009, was signed on Friday during a visit by the Libyan defense minister Abu Bakr Yunis Jaber. A military diplomat said Libya was preparing to purchase 20 fighter planes, S-300PMU2 air defense systems and possibly acquire T-90S tanks and modernize approximately 140 T-72 tanks and weapons. The Libyan government did not provide any comments on the deal. Without revealing the specifics of the agreement, Putin said, reports United Press International, “Only yesterday we signed a contract worth 1.3 billion euros. And it's not only small arms.” BBC News notes that Rosoboronexport, Russia's state-owned arms export monopoly, announced on Thursday that they have seen a 10 per cent increase in sales than the previous year and customers include the governments of China, Algeria, Venezuela, India, Malaysia and Syria. More than 50 per cent of sales came from air force weaponry. The deal also comes days after the Libyan Investment Authority purchased 1.43 per cent of stock from the world’s biggest aluminum producer, Hong Kong IPO of UC RUSAL, reports Ria Novosti.